Gate lodge, Ards District Hospital, Church Street, Newtownards, Co Down, BT23 4AS

Gate lodge for Newtownards Union workhouse, dating to around 1870 and now part of Ards District Hospital on Church Street, Newtownards. This is a curious and innovative example of irregular picturesque design, more architecturally challenging than the workhouse it served.

The building is a one and a half storey house constructed in squared basalt with scabbled sandstone quoins and dressings. Its distinctive outline results from an interplay of gables, catslides and dormers viewed from all angles. The west-facing front facade features a central projecting porch with flat roof and splayed sides, containing a modern panelled and glazed door with sandstone dressings from around the 1950s-60s. Above the porch is a squat single-pane window set within a tall gabled half dormer with sandstone lintel. To the right is a sash window with matching lintel and dressings, and to the left is a squat window.

The north facade includes a small single-storey lean-to projection at the far right. Its north face is blank, but the east face contains a small square single-pane window, with stonework suggesting a door formerly stood here. Where this projection's roof meets the main roof, a small gabled dormer without sides rises, containing a tiny square single-pane window with the roof merging directly into the main roof. To the left of the projection is a sash window with lintel matching those on the front.

The rear (east) facade comprises a gabled bay on the right side, blank except for a sash window on its south face. To the left are a modern window and timber-sheeted door with concrete lintels separated by a concrete pier, indicating this section was once an open porch. This is supported by further modern fenestration on the south facade and evidence of former quoin stone.

The south facade consists largely of a large one and a half storey asymmetrical gabled bay with a sash window on the ground floor left, a modern window to the right, and an upper-level sash window in the gable apex. The roof is complex due to varying gabled bay heights. A curious vaguely Scottish-looking canted half dormer rises from where the rear gabled bay roof intersects with the south roof, containing an odd tiny corner window with a chimney stack rising from its east face. A smaller chimney stack rises from the main roof ridge to the west. All roof sections have overhanging boxed eaves and plain dormers, with cast iron rainwater goods throughout.

The building has been adapted over the years for uses that do not sit well with its original design. It currently serves as occasional living quarters for visiting doctors and hospital staff. The architect and precise construction date remain unknown, though it is estimated to date from around 1870 or perhaps later. The building was delisted on 30 October 2000.